An arrangement of four printing foils or formes, one behind the other in the direction of rotation of the forme cylinder, which four printing foils or formes are maintained in four pits or grooves, is known from DE 44 29 210 A1. Each of the printing foils or formes spans a section of an arc of a circle located between two pits or grooves.
DE 44 29 891 A1 shows a printing group of a rotary printing press with a double-sized transfer cylinder; i.e. one with two section lengths over the circumference, which works together with a single-sized forme cylinder.
The arrangement of cylinders of an offset printing group is also known from DE 198 03 809 A1, wherein the circumference of the transfer cylinder is at a ratio of twice that of the forme cylinder. The forme cylinder can be occupied by one printing forme in the circumferential direction, and in its longitudinal direction, by at least four vertical print pages in a broadsheet format, or a corresponding number of vertical or horizontal tabloid or book formats. A single slit, which is either continuous in the longitudinal direction, or is divided in the longitudinal direction and offset by 180°, is arranged in the circumferential direction of the transfer cylinder for receiving two blankets, which are arranged next to each other in the longitudinal direction of the cylinder. The blanket is designed, for example, in two layers as a rubber blanket fastened on a support plate.
Recesses in the cylinder surface of the transfer cylinder are proposed, in DE 34 41 175 C2, for the purpose of relaxing the rubber blanket. For this purpose, it is also possible to arrange a backing between the cylinder and the rubber blanket, which backing does not extend in the circumferential direction over the entire length of the rubber blanket and has a gap. An insertion slit for receiving the discontinuous backing is arranged on the circumference of the cylinder next to the bracing groove for the rubber blanket. The recesses arranged in the longitudinal direction of the transfer cylinder, and the groove receiving the rubber blanket, are arranged in such a way that in the contact area they respectively work together with the groove of the plate cylinder.
DE 197 40 575 A1 shows forme and transfer cylinders, which work together, wherein the transfer cylinders in one preferred embodiment have two bracing grooves located one behind the other and two rubber blankets maintained in the bracing grooves. In another example, a double-sized transfer cylinder acts together with a double-sized forme cylinder wherein, however, both cylinders have only one bracing groove in the circumferential direction. In all of these examples, the grooves do not roll off on each other.
A single forme cylinder is known from DE-OS 19 60 635, which, in the circumferential direction, has several grooves for fastening printing formes on its circumference. At least one of the grooves can be covered when placing a printing forme on the forme cylinder in the circumferential direction.